Discovering Boaco



My new site: Boaco, Boaco.

 So my host parents left for their farm on Thursday morning, and my host mom was worried because they would be leaving me, but her friends came and stayed with my host sister and me and made us meals and cleaned the house. This was fine, but they´re not coming back until Tuesday or Wednesday, and I leave Tuesday morning. I was hoping to get to know them a little during the visit, but I guess I will have plenty of time later for that. I like this place, but I´m really starting to miss my other PC friends, especially Jess and Kellie. I´m getting a little sad thinking about how we only have 2 ½ more weeks in San Juan before we go off to our sites for the 2 years! It’s hard because I feel like I have to start all over again, when I was comfortable in San Juan and getting used to the transportation and everything. It’s going to be sad to leave the familiar, but I guess I did that 2 months ago.

Anyway, on to happier things…my counterpart, Argelio, came and got me Thursday afternoon with his daughter, Veronica (20), and we walked around Boaco arriba again. He introduced me to the police and told them that I was a new volunteer and I would be there for 2 years—it’s part of Peace Corps rules that we introduce ourselves to the police and other leaders in our community. It’s a good idea and it makes me feel a little safer. Argelio seems to know everyone in town, including the police, and somehow we ended up in the Chief of Police’s office and chatted with him. I wasn’t expecting this so I was a little intimidated, but it was nice to meet him and find out he is a kind man. He also has an air-conditioned office. I told Argelio that I needed to familiarize myself with the town because we have to draw a map of our site, so he took me over to a building with human resources and asked them for a map. This cracked me up, but I went along with it. They had to talk to other people and told me to come back on Monday to get it. I started drawing a map, but Argelio told me to just wait until I get the map on Monday. I hope they actually give me a map because that would be very helpful.

We then went over to the park and sat on bench to relax. Argelio insisted on his daughter practicing her English with me and was embarrassing her, as she was pretty shy. I would be too if I was learning a language and told to practice with native speaker, oh wait, that’s what I’m doing now! She said a few things and we had a conversation between the three of us. Then, I wanted to buy some things at Pali so Veronica went with me and Argelio stayed in the park. I found out that she knows a pretty good amount of English and she got more comfortable when she wasn’t being told by her dad to practice :) She is very sweet and I’m glad she came with me. It started to rain really hard so we waited inside the store, along with everyone else until the rain stopped. We then walked back to the park and found Argelio, who said he needed to go to the church, but Veronica could walk me home. I’m glad this was his daughter and not his son, otherwise this would sound like he was trying to fix me up haha He just really wants his daughter to learn English. She walked back with me to the house, which she’s comfortable being there because it’s her aunt and uncle’s house. We hung out for awhile and chatted. She is such a sweet girl and I hope that we can become friends—I really enjoy talking to her in Spanglish :) I’m not sure how often she’ll be around because she goes to a university in Managua, but maybe we’ll get to hang out over summer break (December and January). Oh, now that I think of that, we probably will because Argelio already asked me when I can start working with her to practice English. This was pretty funny. He kept asking me what days I could work with her and I finally had to tell him that I wasn’t sure what my schedule would be. He also really wants me to go to my family’s farm too, so he’s pretty eager for me to do things here. I’m glad that he is trying to find things for me to do though.

Today, so far, has been the day of waiting. I decided not to go to the high school in the morning because I was planning on going to the afternoon session to meet my other counterpart, Antonio, and observe his classes. I was so tired last night so I went to bed a little early, but then this morning I couldn’t sleep in that late. The senora made me breakfast which was a giant helping of gallo pinto (just like yesterday). This was a lot of food and I’m hoping that maybe I can change it up a little so it’s not that much gallo pinto every morning, maybe some eggs and toast? I do love gallo pinto, but I usually don’t eat it that often haha I read through my PC papers and made a list of places to find in my town. Argelio’s daughter was going to meet me at noon and walk to the high school with me, but she had to go into Managua for something, so I decided that I would just take a taxi at 12:30pm. I was so bored with not much of anything to do. I sat around, watched some TV, read the newspaper… I was going to walk around outside a little, but I felt weird going by myself. I think I’ll get Argelio or Veronica to go with me this weekend, or maybe my host sister. She seems really nice and she has gone with me to a few places already.

I finally left for the high school and got there a little after 12:30 hoping to meet with my counterpart before classes began at 1pm. I sat around and enjoyed the breeze. At 1pm, students started arriving and sitting outside of the classrooms, but no teachers were around. I thought that maybe classes actually start at 1:15pm. At 1:10, I asked the janitor when the classes were going to start (in future tense) and she said 1pm. Well, since it was 1:10pm already, I don’t think that was going to happen. Oh, Nica time… The bell finally rang at 1:18pm and then my counterpart showed up and introduced himself. I asked if I could observe his class and he told me that they were just checking work today and it wasn’t going to be a real class, but I sat in anyway because I was there. Another 45 minutes of waiting…

After the class, I got to talk to him about his schedule and we chatted about when I would be returning to Boaco and what my plans were. He seems really nice and he speaks very good English. He said that he actually was in LA for 3 years of high school in the ESL program and then came back here. It should be interesting figuring out a schedule with Argelio and Antonio, but I’m sure I’ll make it work. It’s kind of a bummer because Argelio works in the morning and Antonio in the afternoon, but maybe I can split it up where some days I work in the morning and some in the afternoon, so I don’t have to work all day (7am-6pm).